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My Husband Told Me to Buy Wine at Target

We’re going through some tough times. Beloved son is 18 and (hopefully) heading to community college this fall. We have many costs – car payment, insurance (on a teenage boy in this area? Holy crap – you can buy a new car every two years for the cost of insurance!), sick dogs, home repairs, and our own need for R&R during these incredibly busy and stressful times.

We were looking at bills versus income last night, and I was complaining about some upcoming payments and he said, “You know what? You’d save a lot of money if you just buy wine at Target.”

(I don’t think I can find an animated GIF that expresses the heart-stopping, soul-crushing tension of that moment)

After considering divorce lawyers via internet and possibly a trip to Vegas to settle this, I pondered the thought. I will say the Target wine aisle has come up in the world a bit and does have some of my favorite Emergency Wines like The Prisoner in stock from time to time. We are, however, a far cry from the days when I bought Target’s Sangria box o’ wine and appreciated it. Frankly, that just won’t do at this point.

It’s interesting to consider what those who do not love wine think about wine. To dear Husband, it’s all mostly the same, it’s just that some is swill and some is, well, less swill-ish. I had to remind him that I don’t go to wineries to get drunk, it’s not like a bar crawl. I go in order to have an experience, be in a calming place, and taste someone else’s art.

Wine Friend 2 has discussed why she goes gambling sometimes with her wife. She sets a limit of say $250, and goes and plays games until that runs completely out, and won’t pull out an additional dollar. In her mind, a nice dinner out and tickets to a play cost that much or more, and it makes for a really pleasant evening. So does that gambling. Both set you back around $250, so choose which fun you want to have. Set your limits, go have some fun, and then let it go.

At this point, a movie ticket is at least $15, or sometimes more if it’s IMAX, THX, 3-D with power seats that adjust and people who serve you cocktails in the theater. Add dinner before and snacks during the movie and you go soaring over $150 for a couple. That makes for a fun afternoon. A winery trip is a bit of time driving, you pay like $10 for the tasting fee and $10 for a glass and the bottles you take home come in at $30. If, like me, you stop at a nando’s, oyster bar, thai or kabob place on the way, then you add in the lunch at $25-$30 per person. You’ve spent roughly what you would on the movie/dinner date, but you’ve been in fresh clean mountain air, and chances are your shoes didn’t stick to the floor like they would in the theater. Hopefully you found something new that you love, you brought a bottle home, and there’s always that Netflix subscription you don’t really use to catch a movie at NO ADDED COST. I think I just basically saved you money.

So I let dear husband know that with a week off of work on the way there would be multiple winery trips coming, although I don’t think too many bottles can be purchased right now since I have a number stored and don’t really need to add to the collection currently. There will be some big purchases coming up in May, plus wine club shipments then too, so I will have to save some money for those.